


The Matian and the Director of JPL

by StillTryingToFly



Series: People Mark Watney needs to buy a beer [3]
Category: The Martian (2015), The Martian - All Media Types, The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Getting drunk together, Missing Scene, NASA, Post-Canon, pineapple on pizza
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 13:18:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5418512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StillTryingToFly/pseuds/StillTryingToFly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark has a drink with the man who helped to save his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Matian and the Director of JPL

**Author's Note:**

> The idea that Mark wanted to buy Bruce Ng a beer was the idea for this whole series. I actually had a hard time with this, for writing Bruce specifically. I have head canons for the man (he's lactose intolerant and he likes gourmet licorice) but I had difficulty writing his personality. I may rewrite this at a later date.

Bruce Ng was in his office working late on the plans for Ares V (previously Ares IV), thinking that if he was lucky someone would kill him before he had to defend it, when Mark Watney walked in carrying a handheld cooler.

“Is this a bad time?”

Bruce looked up, blinked, rubbed his eyes, and looked again to see Mark Watney standing in his office.

“I didn’t know you were in Pasadena,” because Mark Watney was honestly the last person Bruce had expected to see in his office that night.

Mark scratched the back of his neck with his free hand. “Yeah, after the NASA docs finally gave me the all clear and gave me a physical therapy regimen I went to Chicago to spend some time with my parents which was great, but it was kinda creepy being followed by people with cameras every time I wanted to buy gum, so I’ve gotten really good at not being noticed.”

“Oh,” Bruce says because he has been awake for almost twenty hours and part of him is still stuck on the fact that Mark Watney is standing in his office.

The awkward silence stretched on until Mark, who had always hated silence, broke it.

“Sooo, can I offer you a beer?”

“Huh?”

Watney held the cooler up in explanation. “A beer. Would you like a beer?”

And because he this was already such a surreal experience Bruce said yes. Mark smiled and set  the cooler down on the desk.

“You know, I’ve been planning this since I was on Mars,” Mark said as he flipped open the cooler and popped the top off two beers, handing one of them to Bruce.

“Oh?” Bruce said before taking a swig already promising himself the next day off to catch up on his sleep.

“Yep!” Watney said cheerfully. “I was just appreciating how well the rovers held up to Mars and I thought ‘hey I should buy Bruce Ng a beer if I get back to Earth’ and then I thought I should buy beers for everyone at JPL. I have been told that this idea may be impractical. I might do it anyway, what do you think?”

It was a testament to how tired Bruce was that he actually thought through the logistics of it before answering. “It might be a little impractical.”

“Yeah, i thought so,” Mark said sadly.

And because Mark Watney looked like a sad golden retriever Bruce had to say something. “If it makes you feel any better most of us got blackout drunk in celebration when you got back on board the Hermes.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, we had some huge speakers set up in the canteen, and afterwards most of us went to the nearest bar and just... got really hammered.”

“Well that’s something at least.”

Mark took another sip of his beer.

Bruce, finally getting over the surprise of Mark’s visit, thought about the last time he’d seen Watney in person. It had been years before and Watney had been shrieking at Johanssen for ordering a pizza with pineapple on it. The man had almost had a meltdown because he couldn’t imagine doing something that terrible to pizza. Without warning Bruce burst out laughing.

“What?” Mark didn’t look offended only benignly curious.

“Nothing. Well...pineapple on pizza, but nothing really.” And then Bruce began to laugh again because he was sitting in his office at nine at night having a beer with the best known man in maybe the whole world and all he could think about was how the man had reacted to pineapple on his pizza. It was objectively ridiculous, and the matter wasn’t helped by the pinched up face Mark was giving him.  

“Don’t tell me you’re one of those heathens who ruins perfectly good pizza by putting pineapple on it.”

“Nah, I’m lactose intolerant,” Bruce waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “I almost never eat pizza anyway.”

Mark leaned forward with a serious look on his face and put a hand on Bruce’s shoulder.

“You,” he spoke solemnly, “have my deepest condolences.”

And he was so serious about it that Bruce had to laugh again.

“Thanks Watney.”

And maybe it was strange to have a beer with a man he’d barely known before he’d almost killed himself trying to save him from Mars. If someone had asked him if it was worth it, worth all that time and energy and money that went into saving this one man, Bruce would have said yes. Sitting in his office all Bruce could think about was that he was so glad the botanist was here to laugh and joke and hate pineapple pizza. He was glad Mark was alive and he would do it all again to save this one dork.

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked it comment and tell me why. If you hated it comment and tell me why.


End file.
